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RELATIVE TO 
FOR THE 

¥\]^rOSES OF EB\]CaT105S^, 

TO THE 

SENATE OFMARYILAND^ 

JANUARY 30, 1821. 



^ravAsmVtted i!ov t\\e cowsideTaVioB 



OF THE 



LEGISLATURE OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 



COJVCORD , 



S'RINTED BY HILL AND MOORE; 
f OR THE STATE, 
fUUfc, 1823, 




(J 



REPORT, 5)0. 

THE Committee to whom was referred s® 
much of the Governor's mesb.,ge, as relates to ed- 
ucation and public instruction, begleave to report— « 
That they concur with his excellencj in be- 
lieving education, and a general diffusion of knowl- 
edge, in a government constituted like ours, to be 
of great importance, and that "in proportion as 
the structure of a government gives weight to 
public opinion, it is essential that public opinion 
should be enlightened." Your committee consid- 
er our government as emphatically a^government of 
opinion. A general diffusion of knowledge, which 
is essential to its right administration, cannot be 
effected, unless the people are educated. No high 
degree of civilization, of moral power and dignity, 
or of intellectual excellence ; no superiority in sci- 
ence, in literature, or in liberal and eseful arts, 
which constitutes the noblest national supremacy, 
can be attained without the aid of seminaries of 
learning. The establishment of literary institu- 
tions, then, of all grades, from the common school, 
up to the university, becomes the first duty of the 
legislature of a free people. 

Your committee are well aware of the difficul- 
ty, in the present embarrassed state of our pecu- 
niary concerns, of providing the means of making 
education general. They are fully sensible, that. 



4 

at this time, large appropriations out of the pub-^ 
lie treasury, for this purpose, all-important as it is, 
cannot be expected. They deem it therefore 
their duty to recall to your notice a Report and 
certain Kesolutions, presented to the senate at 
the last session by a committee of a like nature 
with the present, which has been referred to your 
committee, as a part of the unfinished business. 
The object of those Resolutions was to call the 
attention of congress, and the legislatures of the 
several states, to the Public Lands, as a fund, from 
which appropriations for the purposes of educa- 
tion may with justice be claimed, not or?ly by Ma- 
ryland, but all the original states, and three of 
the new ones. 

One thirty-sixth part of all the states and terri- 
tories, (except Kentucky,) whose waters fall into 
the Mississippi and the Gulph of Mexico, has been 
appropriated by Congress, wherever the Indian ti- 
tle has been extinguished, and provisions made for 
further appropriations, according to the same ra- 
tio, wherever the Indian title may hereafter be ex- 
tinguished, for the support of common schools, and 
other large appropriations have been made for 
the support of seminaries of a higher grade. Your 
committee are ©f opinion, that the states, for 
whose benefit no such iappropriations have been 
made, are entitled to ask them of Congress, not as 
a matter of favour, but of justice. That this may 
more fully appear, especially as the right of those 
states to an equal participation, with the states^ 



formed out of the Public Lands, in all the benefits 
derived from them, has been doubted, your com- 
mittee have deemed it proper to take a cursory 
view of the manner, ia which thej have been ac- 
quired. 

Before the war ©f the revolution, and indeed 
for some years after it, several of the states pos- 
sessed, within their nominal limits, extensive tracts 
of waste and unsettled lands. These states were 
all, at that epoch, regal and not proprietary prov- 
inces, and the crown, either directly or through 
the medium of officers, whose authority had been 
prescribed or assented to by the crown, was m the 
habit of granting those lands. The right of dis- 
posing of them Avas claimed and exercised hj the 
crown in some form or other. They riiight there- 
fore, with strict propriety, be called the property 
of the crown. 

A question arose soon after the declaration of 
independence, whether those lands should belong 
to the United States, or to the individual states, 
within whose nominal limits they were situated. 

However that question might be decided, no 
doubt could be entertained, that the property and 
jurisdiction of the soil were acquired by the com- 
mon sword, purse and blood, oi all the states, uni- 
ted in a common effort. Justice, therefore, de- 
manded that, considered in the light of property, 
the vacant lands should be sold to defray the ex- 
penses, incurred in the contest, by which they 
were obtained ; and the future harraonv of the 



states required, that the extent and ultimate pop- 
ulation of the several states, should not be so dis- 
proportionate, as they would be if their nominal 
limits should be retained. 

This state, as early as the SOth'of October 1776, 
expressed its decided opinion^ in relation to the 
vacant lands, by an unanimous resolution of the 
convention, which framed our constitution and 
form of government, in the following words, viz. 
" Resolved w«ammo2^s/^. That it is the opinion of 
"this convention, that the very extensive claim of 
«' the state of Virginia to the back lands hath no 
" foundation injustice, and that if the same, or any 
" like claim is admitted, the freedom of the smaller 
" states and the liberties of America may be there- 
" by greatly endangered; this convention being 
" firmly persuaded, that, if the dominion over thos© 
"lands should be established by the blood and trea- 
" sure of the United Sates, such lands ought to be 
" considered as a common stock, to be parcelled 
" out at proper times into convenient, free, and in- 
" dependent governments." 

In the years 1777 and 1778, the General As- 
sembly, by resolves, and instructions to their dele- 
gates in Congress, expressed their sentiments in 
support of their claim to a participation in these 
}ands, in still stronger language, and declined ac- 
ceding to the confederation, on account of the re- 
fusal of the states claiming them exclusively to cede 
them to the United States. They continued to 
decline, on the same grounds, until 1781, when to 



prevent the injurious impression, that dissention 
existed among the states occasioned bj the re- 
fusal of Maryland to join the confederation, they 
authorised their delegates in Congress to subscribe 
the articles ; protesting, however, at the same 
time, against the inference, (which might other- 
wise have been drawn,) that Maryland had relin- 
xjuished its claim to a participation in the western 
lands. 

Most of the other states contended, on similar 
grounds with those taken by Maryland, for a par- 
ticipation in those lands. 

By the treaty of peace in 1783, Great Britain 
relinquished " to the United States all claim to 
the government, property, and territorial rights of 
the same, and every part thereof" 

The justice and sound policy of ceding the un- 
settled lands, urged with great earnestness and 
force by those states, which had united in conquer- 
ing them from Great Britain, strengthened by the 
surrender, on the part of Great Britain, of her 
rights of property and jurisdiction to the United 
States collectively^ and aided moreover, by the el- 
evated and patriotic spirit of disinterestedness and 
conciliation, which then animated the whole con- 
federation, at length made the requisite impres- 
sion upon the states, which had exclusively claimed 
those lands ; and each of them, with the exception 
of Georgia, made cessions of their respective 
claims within a {q\^ years after the peace. Those 
states were Massachusetts,Connecticur, New York, 



Virginia, Norih Carolina, and South Carolma, the 
charters of which, with the exception of New York^ 
extended westwardly to the South Sea 'or Pacific 
Ocean. This circumstance gave to Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut a joint claim with Virginia^ 
to such parts of what was then called the North 
Western Territory, as came within the breadth of 
their respective charters. The rest of that terri- 
tory lay within the limits of the charter of Virgin- 
ia. New York, indeed, had an indefinite claim to 
a part of it. Cessions, however, from all these 
states, at length Gompleted the title of the United 
States, and placed it beyond all controversy. 

The state of North Carolina ceded its claim to 
the territory which now constitutes the state of 



Tennessee. 



Georgia, (whose charter also extended west- 
wardly to the Pacific Ocean,) at length, in 1802j 
ceded the territory, which now constitutes the 
states of Mississippi and Alabama, except a small 
part on the south side of them, which was acquired 
imder the treaty ceding Louisiana. The condi- 
tions of that cession were, that the United States 
should pay one million two hundred thousand dollars 
to Georgia, and extinguish the Indian title within 
the limits, which she reserved. 

The United States have, in this manner, acquired 
an indisputable title to all the public^lands east of 
the Mississippi. 

All the territory west of the Mississippi, togeth- 
er with the southern extremity of the states of 



9 

Mississippi and Alabama, was purchased of France 
for Jifteen millions of dollars. This sum, asTfell as 
the sums required for the purchase of the Indian 
title to the public lands, was paid out of the treas= 
ury of the United States. 

So far therefore as acquisition of public lands 
has been made by purchase, it has been at the 
common expense ;— -so far as it has been made by 
war, it has been bj the common force — -and so far 
as it has been made by cessions from individual 
states, it has been upon the ground, expressly stip- 
ulated in most of the acts or deeds of cession, that 
the lands should be " considered," to use the words 
of the act passed for that purpose by the state 
which made the largest cession, "as a common 
fund, for the vss and benefit of such of the states as 
have become, or shall become, members of the confed- 
eration or federal alliance of said states, according to 
their usual respective proportions in the general 
charge and expenditure, and shall faithfully and bo- 
nafide be disposed of for that purpose, and for no 
other use or purpose whatsoever.'''' 

In whatever point of view therefore the public 
lands are considered, whether as acquired by pur- 
chase, conquest or cession, they are emphatically 
the common property of the Union. They ought 
to enure, therefore, to the common use and benefit 
of all the states, in just proportions, and cannot be 
appropriated to the use and benefit of any particu" 
/arstate or statesj to the exclusion of the others, 
without an infringement of the principles, upon 
2 



20 

which cessions from states were expressly made^ 
and a violation of the spirit of our national com- 
pact, as well as the principles of justice and sound 
policy. 

So far as these lands have been sold, and the 
proceeds been received into the national treasury, 
all the states have derived a justly proportionate 
benefit from them :™So far as they have been ap- 
propriated for purposes of defence, there is no 
ground for complaint ; for the defence of every 
part of the country is a common concern :— So far, 
in a word, as the pioceeds have been applied to 
NATIONAL, and not to state purposes, although the 
expenditure may have beenlocal, the Course of the 
general government has been consonant to the prin- 
ciples and spirit of the Federal Constitution. But 
so far as appropriations have been made, in favour 
of any state or states, to the exclusion of the rest, 
where the appropriations would have been benefi- 
cial, and might have been extended to all alike, 
your committee conceive there has been a depar- 
ture from that line of policy, which impartial jus- 
tice, so essential to the peace, harmony, and stabil- 
ity of the union, imperiously prescribes. 

Your committee then proceed to inquire, wheth- 
er the acts of Congres, in relation to appropriations 
of public lands, have been conformable to the dic- 
tates of impartial justice. 

By the laws relating to the survey and sale of 
the public lands, one thirty-sixth part of them has 
been reserved and appropriated in perpetuity for 



11 

the support of common schools. The public lands 
are laid off into townships, six miles square, hj 
lines running with the cardinal points: these town- 
ships are then divided into thirty-six sections, each 
a mile square, and containing 640 acres, which are 
designated by numbers. Section No. 16, which is 
always a central section, has invariably been ap- 
propriated, (and provision has been made by law 
for the like appropriations in future surveys,) for 
the support of common schools in each township. 

In Tennessee, in addition to the appropriation 
of a section in each township for common schools, 
200,000 acres have been assigned for the endow- 
ment of colleges and academies. Large appropri- 
ations have also been made in Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, 
Michigan, and the North Western Territory, for 
the erection and maintenance of seminaries of 
learning of a higher grade than common schools. 
Your committee have not had an opportunity of 
ascertaining the exact amount of those appropria- 
tions, but from such examination as they have been 
able to make, it is believed that they bear a 
smaller proportion to those for common schools, 
than in Tennessee, Tennessee, in Seybert's Sta- 
tistical Annals, is stated to contain 40,000 
square miles, which are equal to 25,600,000 acres. 
One 36th part of this number of acres, which is 
the amount of appropriation for common schools? 
is 711,111. The appropriation for colleges and 
academies in that state, is, as above stated, SOO,, 



000 acres, being something less than two f tbs of 
the common school appropriation. It is believed^ 
that the appropriations in the other states and 
territories for seminaries of a higher grade, do not 
amount to more than two IGths or one 5th of the 
appropriations for common schools. Your com-*, 
mittee think they will not be far from the truth 
in estimating them at that proportion. 

The states and territories east of the Mississip- 
pi, which have had appropriations made in their 
favour for the support of literarypnstitutions ; that 
is to say, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Alaba- 
ma, Michigan, and the North Western Territory, 
are estimated, in Seybert's Statistical Annals, t© 
contain of unsold lands, 200,000,000 acres. 

Ofiandssold, 11,697,125 

To which add Tennessecj 25,600,000 

And the aggregate number of 
acres in those states and ter- 
ritories will be 237,297,125 

One 36th part of that aggre- 
gate number, being the a- 
mount of appropriation for 
common schools, is 6,5915586 acres. 

Add one 5th part of the com- 
mon school appropriation as 
the appropriation [far Col- 
leges and Academies, 1,818,317 acres* 

And the aggregate number of 
acres appropriated for the 



13 

purposes of education in O- 
laio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennes- 
see, Mississippi, Alabama, 
Michigan, and the North- 
Western Territory, will be 7,909,903. 
At $2 per acre, which is less, 
according to Seybert's Sta- 
tistical Annals, than the ave- 
rage price of all the public 
lands, which Jiave hereto- 
fore been sold, the amount 
in money will be $15,819,806, 

Seybert estimates the lands 

purchased of France by the 

United States in 1803, at 200,000,000 acres. 
By the laws relating to the sur- 
vey and sales of public lands 

in Missouri and Arkansaw, 

appropriations of land for 

the purposes of education 

have been made after the 

same ratio, as in the new 

states and territories on the 

east of the Mississippi, and it 

is presumed the same policy 

will be adhered to in relation 

to the whole of the public 

lands on the west of that river. 

On that supposition the ap- 
propriations for common 



14 

schools, that is, one 36th part 

of i?00,000,000 acres, will be 5,555,555 acres. 

for Collegfes and Acade- 
mies one 5th part of the ap- 
propriation for common 
schools 1,111,111 acres. 

And the aggregate number of 

acres will be 6,666,6661. 

At $2 per acre, the amount in 

money will be 13,333,3333. 

To the aggregate number of 
acres appropriated for the 
support of literary institu- 
tions on the east side of the 
Mississippi, 7,909,903. 

Add the aggregate number of 
acres, which if the system 
heretofore followed, should 
be, (as it ought to be) ad- 
hered to, will ultimately be 
appropriated to hterary 
purposes on the west of the 
Mississippi 6,666,666^^. 

And the total of literary ap- 
propriation in the new states 
and territories will be 14,576,569^ acres. 

AtS2 per acre, the amount in 

money will be $29,153,1393. 

Such is the vast amount of property, destined 

for the support and encouragement of learning in 



15 

the states and territories, carved out of the public 
lands. These large appropriations of land, the 
common property of the union, will enure to the 
exclusive benefit of those states and territories. 
They are appropriations for state, and not for 
NATIONAL purposes ; — they are of such a nature, 
that they might have been extended to all the 
states ;— thev therefore ought to have been thus 
extended. All the other states paid their full 
share for the purchase of the region west of the 
Mississippi, and for the extinguishment of the In- 
dian title, on both sides of that river. Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina and Georgia, besides paying their propor- 
tion of those expenses, ceded all their vacant ter- 
ritory on the east side of the Mississippi. All these 
States, therefore, might with great propriety com- 
plain of partiality and injustice, if their applica- 
tions to Congress for similar appropriations for 
like purposes should be refused. But of this refu- 
sal they need have no apprehension, if they are 
true to their own interests, and are united in as- 
serting them ; for, if contrary to all reasonable ex- 
pectation the states, which have already received 
the benefit of literary appropriations, should be 
opposed to the extension of them to their sister 
states, the latter are more than two thirds in num- 
ber of all in the United States, and have a still lar- 
ger proportion of representatives in Congress. 
These states an2 VeraiOnt, 2^'ew-Hampshire, 
Maine-, Massachusetts, iihode Island, Connecticut, 



16 

New- York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, BelaWiarej 
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Caroli- 
na, Georgia and Kentucky, and together have one 
hundred and sixty-nine representatives in Congress^ 
The favoured stages on the contrary have only 
seventeen representatives. The excluded states 
have therefore an overwhelming majority in Con- 
gress, and have it completely in their power to 
make appropriations for the benefit of their liter- 
ary institutions, upon the improbable supposition, 
that the representatives of the favoured states 
would oppose them in Congress, a supposition too 
discreditable to their character for justice to be 
admitted. 

The magnitude of the appropriations, tha^ 
would be required to place the states, which have 
not yet enjoyed any for the purpose of education^ 
upon an ei^ual footing with those, in whose favour 
they have already been made, can afford no just 
ground of objection. For superior as the popula* 
tion of those states is, yet if the ratio of appropri*- 
ation be observed with regard to them, which has 
been adopted in relation to the others, i. e. one 
36th part of the number of acres in the territory 
of each for common schools, and one 5th part of 
that one 36th for colleges and academies, thenum* 
ber of acres required will be much less than has 
already been given to the favoured states and ter- 
ritories — it will indeed amount to but a very small 
portion of the public lands: For according to Sey- 
bert's Statistical Annals, those lands in 1813 a- 



tnounted. to 400,000,000 acres. The amount re^ 
quired for all the excluded states would be less 
than two and an half per centum of that quantity : 
to shew which more clearly, your committee beg 
leave to submit the following statement, founded 
upon calculations made upon the extent of territo- 
ry in each of those states, as laiddewn in Seybert's 
Statistical Annals.] 

New- Hampshire contains 6,074,240 acres. 
One 36th part of that extent, 

being the number of acres 

of public land, to which that 

state is entitled for the sup- 
port of common schools, is 16S,728 
One 5th part of that 36th to 

which New-Hampshire is 

entitled for the support of 

Colleges and Academies, is 33,f45 

Total for New-Hampshire, 2025473acres. 
Vermont contains 6,551,680 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, is 181,991 

One 5th of one 36th for Col- 
leges and Academies, 36,398 

Total for Vermont 218,389 acres. 

Massachusetts including Maine, 

contains 28,990,000 acres. 

One 36th part for common 

schools, 805,277 ^ 

One 5th of one S6th for CoU ' ' ' 

3 



18 

leges and Academies, 161,055 



Total for Massachusetts and Maine 966,332 acre§, 

Rhode Island contains 1,011,200 acres. 

One^ 36th part for common 

scheois, 28,088 

One fifth of one 36th for col- 
leges, 5,617 



Total for Rhode Island, 83,705 acres. 

Connecticut contains 2,991,360 acres. 

One 36th part for common 

schools, 83,093 

One 5th of one 36th for Col- 
leges and Academies, 16,618 



Total for Connecticut, 99,711 acres. 

New York contains 28,800,000 acres. 

One 36th part for common 

schools, 800,080 

One 5th of one 36th for Col- 
leges and Academies, 160,000 



Total for New York, 960,000 acres. 

New Jersey contains 5,324,800 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, 144,577 

One 5th part ©f one 36th for 

Colleges and Academies, 28,9 17 

Total for New Jersey, 173,494 acres. 

Pennsylvania contains 29,872,000 acres. 



19 

One 36th part for common 

schools, 829,77'3? 

One 5th of one 36th for Col- 
leges and Academies, 165,955 



Total for Pennsylvania, 995,732 acres. 

Delaware contains 1,356,800 acres. 

One 36th part for common 

schools, 37,688 

One 5th of one 36th for Col- 
leges and Academies, 7,537 



Total for Delaware, 45,225 acres. 

Maryland contains 8,960,000 acres. 

One 36th part for common 
schools, 248,888 

One 5th of one 36th for Col- 
leges and Academies, 49,777 



Total for Marjlan^, 298,665 acres. 

Virginia contains 44,800,000 acres. 

One 36th part for common 

schools, 1,244,444 

One 5th of one 36th for Col- 
leges and Academies, 248,888 



M 



Total for Virginia, 1,493,332 acres. 

North Carolina contains 29,720,000 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, 825,55^ 

One 5th of one 36th for Col- 



leges and Academies, 105,111 

Total for North Carolina, 980,666 acres. 

South Carolina contains 15,111,200 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, 428,0S8 

One 5th of one 36th for Col- 
leges and Academies^ 85,617 



Total for South Carolinaj 513,705 acres« 

Georgia contains 39,680,000 acres. 

One 36th part for common 
schools, 1,102,222 

One 6th ©f one 36th for Col- 
leges and Academies, 220,444 



Total for Georgiaj 1,322,666 acres, 

Kentucky contains 32,000,000 acres. 

One 36th part for common 

schools, 888,888 

One 5th of one 36th for Col- 
leges and Academies, 177,,777 

Total for Kentucky, 1,066,665 acres. 



Total amount of literary appro- 
priation necessary to do jus- 
tice to the states which have 
not yet had any, 9,370,760 acres. 

The senate will perceive from the foregoing 
calculations, that if the ratio of appropriation for 
the purposes of education, which has hitherto been 
observed, be adopted with respect to the sixteen 



21 

states, which as yet have received no appropria- 
tions of that nature, a much smaller number of 
acres will be required, than has already been as- 
signed to the western region of our country ; it 
would be an inconsiderable portion of the aggre- 
gate of public lands; — a much less quantity, indeed, 
than now remains unsold in any of the states, which 
have been formed out of them, with the exception 
perhaps of Ohio and Tennessee. The magnitude of 
the appropriations, then, which equal justice now 
requires, cannot be considered as a reasonable ob- 
jection to them, and as the literary appropriations, 
that have heretofore been made, have been grant- 
ed for STATE and not for national purposes, accord- 
ing to the just principle set forth in the beginning 
of this report, similar appropriations ought to be 
extended to all the states. 

The circumstance, that the lands, which have 
heretofore been appropriated for the purposes of 
education, are a part of the territory of the states, 
for whose benefit they have been assigned, can 
furnish no reasonable ground for the preference, 
which has been given them. The public lands 
are not the less the common property of all the 
states, because they are situated within the juris- 
dictional limits of the states and territories, wbich 
have been formed out of them. Such states have 
no power to tax them : — they cannot interfere with 
the primary disposal of them, or with the regula- 
tions of Congress for securing the title to pur- 
chasers : — it is in fact Congress alone, that can 



*)^ 



enact laws to affect them. The interest, which & 
citizen of an Atlantic state has in themj as a part 
of the property ot the union, is the sarae as the 
interest of a citizen residing in a state formed out 
of them. But hitherto appropriations of them for 
state purposes have only been made in favour of 
such states ; and the citizen on the eastern side of 
the Alleghany may well complain, that property, 
in which he has a common interest with his fellow- 
citizen on the western side, should be appropria- 
ted exclusively to the use of the latter. That this 
is the^fact in regard to that part of the public 
lands, which have been assigned for the support of 
literary institutions and the promotion of education, 
cannot be denied. 

Your committee do not censure the enlightened 
policy which governed Congress in making liberal 
appropriations of land for the encouragement of 
learning in the west, nor do they wish to withdraw 
one acre of them from the purposes, to which 
they have been devoted ; but they think they ar© 
fully justified m saying, that impartial justice re- 
quired, that similar appropriations should have 
been extended to all the states alike. Suppose 
Congress should appropriate 200,000 acres of the 
public lands for the support of Colleges and Acad- 
emies in New-York; and Virginia, who gave up 
and ceded a great portion of those lands to the 
United States, on the express condition, that ^Uhey 
should be considered as a common fund /or the use 
and benefit of all of them, according to their usual 
respective proportions in the general charge and ex- 



23 

penditure,'^^ should apply for a similar grant, and 
her application should be refused : — would she 
not have a right to complain of the partiality of 
such a measure, and to charge the federal gov- 
ernment with a breach of good faith, and an in- 
frinsrement of the conditions, on which the cession 
was made ? It canaot be denied, that she would. 
Congress have already made a grant of 200,000 
acres of land for the support of Colleges and A- 
cademies, not indeed in New- York, but in Tennes- 
see. Would not Virginia, if she now made an ap- 
plication for a like grant, and were refused, have 
the same reason to complain, as if New-York, in- 
stead of Tennessee, had been the favored state ? 

Your committee beg leave to illustrate, by a- 
nother example, the equity of the principle, 
which it is the object of this report to establish^ 
Foreign 'commerce and the public lands are alike 
legitimate sources, from which the United States 
may and do derive revenue. Foreign commerce 
has fixed its seat in the Atlantic states. Suppose 
Congress should pass a law, appropriating one 
36th part of the revenue, collected from foreign 
commerce in the ports of Baltimore, New- York, 
Boston, Norfolk, Charleston and Savannah, to 
the support of common schools throughout the 
states, ia which they are situated : the other states, 
every person will admit, vv'ould have a right to 
complain of the partiality and injustice of such 
an act;--and yet in what respect would an act ap- 
pro.priating one 36tli part of the revenue, derived 



from foreign commerce to the use of schools m 
the six states, in which it should be produced, be 
more partial or unjust than an act appropriating 
one 36th part of the public land, in Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, the 
six states, in which the public lands on this side of 
the Mississippi are chieflj situated, to their exclu- 
sive benefit in the maintenance of their schools ? 

iTour committee are aware, that it has been 
said, that the appropriation of a part of the pub- 
lic lands to the purposes ©f education, for the 
benefit of the states formed out of them, has had 
the effect of raising the value of the residue, by 
inducing emigrants to settle upon them. Although 
in the preambles of such of the acts on this sub- 
ject, as have preambles, the promotion of religiori, 
moralitj and knowledge, as necessary to good gov- 
ernment and the happiness of mankind, have been 
assigned as the reason for passing them, and no 
mention has been made of the consequent increase 
in the value of the lands, that would remain, as a 
motive for the appropriation, yet the knowledge, 
that provision had been made for the education 
of children in the west, though other motives usu- 
ally influence emigrants, might have had its weight 
in inducing some to leave their native homes. If 
such has been the effect, the value of the residue 
of the lands has no doubt been increased by it 
This increase of value however has not been an 
exclusive benefit to the Atlantic states; but a ben-> 
efit common to all the states, eastern and western, 
while the latter still enjoy exclusively the advan- 



25 

tage. derived from the appropriations of land for 
literary purposes. The incidental advantage of 
the increase in value of the public lands, in conse- 
quence of emigration, if it is to be considered in 
the light of a compensation to the old states, must 
be shewn to be an advantage exclusively enjoyed 
bj them. That this however is not the case is 
perfectly obvious — because the proceeds of the 
lands, thus raised in value by emigration, when 
sold, go into the United States treasury, and are 
applied, like other revenues, to the general bene- 
fit — in other words, to national and not to state 
purposes. 

It is moreover most clear, that this increase of 
the value of lands in consequence of emigration, 
produces a peculiar benefit to the inhabitants of 
the new states, in which the inhabitants ot the 
other states, unless owners of land in the news 
have no participation. This benefit consists m 
the increase of the value of their own private 
property. 

On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true, that 
emigration is injurious to the Atlantic states, and 
to them alone. While it has had the effect of 
raising the price of lands in the west, it has, in an 
equal ratio at least and probably in a much great- 
er, prevented the increase of the value of lands in 
the states, which the emigrants have left. It is 
an indisputable principle in political economy, that 
the price of every object of purchase, whether 

land or personal property, depends upon the rela- 

4 



tlon, which supply bears to demand. The de- 
mand for land would have been the same, or very 
nearly so, for the same number of people, as aro 
contained within the present limits of the United 
States, if they had been confined within the limits 
of the Atlantic states. But the supply in that case 
would have been most materially different. Id 
must have been so small in proportion to the de- 
mand, as t© occasion a great rise in the value of 
land in the Atlantic states ; for it cannot be doubt- 
ed, that it is the inexhaustible supply of cheap and 
good land in the west, which has kept down the 
price of land on the eastern side of the Alleghany. 
If the Atlantic states had been governed by an ex- 
clusive, local and selfish policy, every impediment 
ivould have been thrown in the way of emigra- 
tion, which has constantly and uniformly operated 
to prevent the growth of their numbers, wealth 
and power; for which disadvantage the apprecia- 
tion of their interest in the public lands, consequent 
upon emigration, can afford no adequate compen- 
sation. It appearing then perfectly clear to your 
committee, that emigration is exclusively advan- 
tageous to the new states, whose population, 
wealth and power, are thereby increased at the 
expense of those states, which the emigrants 
abandoned, the inducement to emigration furnished 
by the appropriation of public lands for the pur- 
poses of education in the west, instead of affording 
a reason for confining such appropriations to that 
quarter of the Union, offers the most weighty con- 



27 

siderations of both justice and policy, in favour of 
extending them to the states, which have not yet 
obtained them. 

Your committee beg leave to present one fur- 
ther reflection to the consideration of the Senate, 
drawn from the effect produced by encouraging 
learning in the western states alone, upon the rela- 
tive moral power of the Atlantic and Mississippi 
states. They are far from wishing to make any 
objection to the augmentation of the intelligence 
and mental improvement of the people of the west. 
On the Contrary they sincerely desire the advance- 
ment of their brethren in that quarter of the Union, 
in every thing, that can strengthen, dignify and em>= 
bellish political communities. But while they enter- 
tain these sentiments, they cannot shut their eyes 
to the political preponderance, which must ulti- 
mately be the inevitable result of the superior ad- 
vantages of education there, and they must there- 
fore ardently desire, that the same advantages be 
extended to the people of the Atlantic states. 

Your committee are persuaded, that from the 
views which they have thus presented, on the sub- 
ject of appropriations of public lands for the pur- 
poses of education, the Senate will be satisfied, 
that Maryland, and the other states, which have 
not yet had the benefit of any such appropriations, 
are entitled to ask of the general government, to 
be placed on an equal footing with the states, 
which have already received them. They be- 
lieve that no one, convinced of the justice of such 



28 

a measure, can question its expediency 5 nor c&n 
they entertain any apprehension, that an applica- 
tion to Congress, supported by the combined influ- 
ence of all the states, which are interested, would 
fail of success. For the purpose therefore of 
drawing the attention of the National Legislature 
to this important subject, and of obtaining thfe co- 
operation of the other states, your Committee beg 
leave to recommend the adoption of the following 
Resolutions i 

Resolvedj by the General Assemhly of Maryland^ 
That each of the United States has an equal right 
to participate in the benefit of the Public Lands, 
the common property of the Union. 

Resolved, That the states, in whose favour Con** 
gross have not made appropriations of land for the 
purposes of education, are entitled to such appro- 
priations as will correspond, in a just proportion, 
with those heretofore made in favour of the oth» 
er states. 

Resolved, That his excellency the Governor, be 
requested to transmit copies of the foregoing Re- 
port and Resolutions to each of our Senators and 
Representatives in Congress, with a request, that 
they will lay the same before their respective 
Houses, and use their endeavours to procure the 
passage of an act to carry into effect the just prin- 
ciple therein set forth. 

Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor, 
be also requested to transmit copies of the said 
Report and Resolutions to the Governors of the 



several States of the Union, with a request, that 
they will communicate the same to the Legisla- 
tures thereof respectively, and solicit their co-ope- 
ration. 

All which is respectfully submitted, 

V.MAXCY, Chairman. 



IN SENATE, January 30th, 1821, 

Kead the first time and ordered to lie on the table. 

By order, J. N. WATKINS, Clk. 

IN SENATE, Feb. 5, 18S1. 

Read the second time and ordered to lie on the 
table. 

By order, J. N. WATKINS, Clk. 

IN SENATE, Feb. 9, 1821. 
Read the third time and assented to. 

By order, J. N. WATKINS, Clk. 

By the House of Delegates^ Feb. 9, 1821. 
Read the first time and ordered to lie on the 
table. 

By order, JOHN BREWER, CIL 

By the House of Delegates^ Feb. 13, 182 L 
Read the second time and assented to. 

By order, JOHN BREWER, Clk. 

/ certfy the foregoing to he a true copy oj the 
Original 

J. JY. WATKljyS, Clk, 



